The End of an Era

Texans drove their last great herds north in the 1880s.

- By Johnny D. Boggs

Kansans had been complaining about Texas longhorns since the first herds hit Abilene in 1867, but the trail driving heyday kept booming, peaking in the 1880s.

Almost 350,000 Texas cattle reached Kansas in 1880.

Sure, Kansas established quarantine laws to prevent the spread of a tick-spread disease from coming up the Chisholm Trail. But there was still a market in Dodge City (1875-85) and Caldwell (1880-85).

Texas cowboys could follow the Chisholm Trail into present-day Oklahoma (then Indian Territory) and take the Dodge City cutoff to the Western Trail, aka the old Fort Griffin and Fort Dodge trail” As quarantine lines moved west, cattlemen recommended sticking to the Western Trail completely.

But ranches in Colorado, Wyoming, Montana, and Dakota Territory also needed beef-to feed a growing population and to stock ranches. Texans herded cattle into Nebraska, Dakota Territory, Colorado, Wyoming, and Montana.

Sure, railroads were crisscrossing much of the West by the 1880s. But Texas ranchers understood that outfitting a trail drive (say a cook, a horse wrangler, a trail boss and 10-12 cowboys) came a lot cheaper than paying the shipping prices railroads charged.